And you thought Reagan’s response to AIDS was callous and irresponsible. Well, it was. But at least he didn’t have people executed for being gay, which happened from time-to-time in Castro’s Cuba. We might learn a thing or two from a country that focused on cultural repression. That is to say, my might, but we won’t.
The place is Havana. The time is the Special Period. The USSR has self-destructed, giving independence to all of its satellites. The results are a maddening mix of freedom and poverty, especially in Cuba, where granting rebellion a forum is unheard of. Punk rock (“American music”) is severely frowned upon. That’s how we meet mohawked, tattooed Paco, the punk rocker in this story of two brothers.
Loose cannon, Paco (Héctor Medina), and his quieter younger brother, Gustavo (Eros de la Puente), want … something else … anything else. They’re not alone. Paco and Gustavo have been reduced to capturing stray cats for food. (Paco is into it; Gustavo is squeamish.)
This would be an excellent time to remind people that last fall, the President Elect of the United States had a debate, a debate he lost very badly. One of the reasons he lost very badly was that, when flustered, he resorted to a grandiose and ridiculous lie about immigrants to Springfield, Ohio, stealing, killing, and eating the pets of the people who lived there. To this day, he has not admitted it was a lie, let alone apologized for the damage that he created by telling it.
Any collection of people who can look at the last eight years of that man and decide he’s the best choice to lead them is a stupid, stupid, stupid group of assholes.
But I digress.
Paco is a drug abuser, so it’s only a matter of time before he contracts AIDS from needle-sharing. At this time in Cuba, AIDS is dealt with in one-of-two ways: the victim can be incarcerated -and perhaps executed- for being gay, or they can send him to what essentially amounts to AIDS camp, where HIV+ kids do some chores, but mostly sit around all day being HIV+.
Without Paco, Gustavo retreats to his family, who have a raft headed for Cuba. When the raft takes on water, Gustavo bails, abandoning all he knows. Without a family, resources, a job, or the nerve to share needles, Gustavo has but one choice: fake being HIV+ so he can join his brother at AIDS camp.
Think about
that for a moment, will you? How bad does your life have to be that you prefer faking AIDS to everyday life in a country where AIDS can be punishable by death.
Wow, kid, you really don’t like eating cat, huh?
Los Frikis is an anthem of rebellion in the format of romance. Gustavo wants to be a punk rocker like his older brother, and he’s clearly lost without Paco in his life, and yet, in many ways he has far more to offer the world than Paco; he just doesn’t see it. This is one of those moments where you see the good guy doing the wrong thing (Gustavo faking AIDS to go live in the country), but we’re all kinda rooting for him anyway because life in Havana was awful. How would you like to come of age at AIDS camp? The picture is moving if uneven and never really gets to the part where, “this has to end, doesn’t it?” It will almost certainly develop a cult following among the LGBTQ+ crowd even though its focal subject isn’t a member and abuses the privileges of membership. And, yet, let’s face it; this film sure won’t find a home among the MAGA crowd.
There once was a boy named Gustavo
Lately freed from the oppressive Slav-o
Yet famine in hand
Throughout all the land
Makes our hero solve uniquely, bravo!
Rated R, 111 Minutes
Director: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz
Writer: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz
Genre: Be grateful you’re not …
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Counter-culturalists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Authoritarians
